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Perhaps the one big flaw in sola is that the directors tried to overplay the tragedy theme. It did struck me when the possibility of one of the Yakas dying that they might have lost their plot somewhere in the middle, and the amount of unanswered questions certainly didn't help.

It's 2 things. To please either themselves, or to please the fans. Making an anime in Japan is not an easy thing, you got to please both sides.

Of course, now the only thing we should try to avoid (especially with the coming of episode 13) is another post by Kaoshin_Sama on 'how sola can fail because of the Kanon writer'.

My feelings on sola haven't changed since Ep. 1. To me, the series has always been a relaxing, worthwhile watch (not great, but still a guilty pleasure, which is the minimum I desire from a show) despite some questionable direction and script work. Some early episodes suffered from hokey dialogue, while recent ones have been hurt by forced melodrama (characteristic of many bishoujo game stories) and awkward plot twists.

The structure

Spoiler for AIR:

incorporating the (underdeveloped) Minagi and Kano stories made the first half choppy and unfocused

and plot devices

Spoiler for AIR:

ridiculously forced pathos thanks to curse details like memory loss, obstruction to making friends, close relationships causing someone to die, etc. In this regard, Kanon is about as far as I'd like a writer to go.

of AIR actually annoyed me more, but then again, I had high expectations that time (and no expectations for sola, which hasn't disappointed) given the reputation of the game.

Please don't for an instant think that was a dig at Kanon - Uguu! I adore that story. I just think the emotional approach was appropriate for the material there, just as the contrary approach was for Sola. As for Aono, well - I guess villain is a relative term. It's a complicated tale in which no one (save perhaps Yorito) is free of a laundry list of things to feel guilty about. But one tends to need an axis of right and wrong to orient around in a series like this, and its Aono, for me, who drives most of the negative karma.

No, no...I never felt that it was a dig at Kanon at all. Only when Sorrow-K mentioned it did I realise that there are bound to be some people out there who place their expectations as such with no reference to you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kct

It's 2 things. To please either themselves, or to please the fans. Making an anime in Japan is not an easy thing, you got to please both sides.

Never said it was, never thought it is ever going to be easy pleasing everyone. Making a show to please oneself isn't generally going to get far-Unless it so happens that they have rather high standards and are able to cover most things in terms of expectations.

Quote:

Of course, now the only thing we should try to avoid (especially with the coming of episode 13) is another post by Kaoshin_Sama on 'how sola can fail because of the Kanon writer'.

Seems to me like the common factor between Matsuri and Takeshi is that weird Yaka Blade. In the early episodes, Takeshi used it against Matsuri and he was pretty much a villian about it. Then in episode 10, Matsuri shows up with it, along with a change in personality.

It's a shame, Aono has crazy papercut hax powers, but if she gets turned back into a human... T_T

Better choice would be to just have Aono create paper suits for her and Matsuri to walk around in, something that just looks like skin. Yorrito was walking around just fine, so it's not like her magical origami breaks down in sunlight...

Aono was a whole lot chirpier in the past although in later segments, they played on the "forbidden love" by having Matsuri insinuate that Aono was jealous/uncomfortable of the affection between Matsuri and Yorito.

Random Snark: Aono and Paper-Yorito takes the phrase, "non-blood-related siblings" to a whole new level.
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Matsuri kicks the Well('s Bucket).
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Finally... we get canonical information that Past-Yorito was indeed Aono's little brother.
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It still baffles me on why Matsuri and Yorito felt the need to aggravate Aono so much with mind games. Why not just straight out tell Aono that they intend to make her human? If Aono accepts, there is no need to fight; and if Aono rejects, they would end up fighting anyway.
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"The main character will always be happy in the end."
"Ah, he died! His face was torn in half."

The dramatic irony in these lines is so, so delectable.
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"The House That Aono Built", air-strums a Metallica song. Mana's friends got more speaking roles in this scene. I wonder what their status will be like in the game? For tertiary characters, they have a fair amount of speaking lines in this series.
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More delicious irony as Aono pauses at the entrance of the battleground and recalls the first time she approached Matsuri's cave. Back then, she was a willing sacrifice about to surrender her life to Matsuri. This time though, she is going to kick Matsuri's cute petite ass and take back what is hers. In both cases, she was thinking that Matsuri was an Evil Being.
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It is perhaps... very ironic that Matsuri ended up with Aono's past tendencies in the present. When Past-Yorito died, Aono was very suicidal and self-blaming (a trait that now belongs to Present-Matsuri ironically).
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The issue of Aono being more powerful than Matsuri is not an issue to me at all. If anything, it is entirely logical. Between the two of them, Aono is the one who embraced her powers, while Matsuri rarely uses hers.

Centuries of practice versus centuries of neglect should have produced differences between the two of them in terms of combat prowess. It is not Aono's fault if Matsuri only uses her powers under duress.

Basically speaking, when it comes to using their powers, Matsuri is a newb.
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Additionally... why are so many people complaining about Aono's paper-clones? They are merely puppets compared to the SENTIENT being that is Paper-Yorito. I would like to think that there is a world of difference between the two.
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Seeing Matsuri and Aono smash each other through walls was fun in a brutal sort of way.

"THIS IS SOLA!"
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I find it amusing that the one prediction I managed to nail down 100% is about the passage of time in the previews. As expected, we get the dawn in the final preview.

Aono was a whole lot chirpier in the past although in later segments, they played on the "forbidden love" by having Matsuri insinuate that Aono was jealous/uncomfortable of the affection between Matsuri and Yorito.

Random Snark: Aono and Paper-Yorito takes the phrase, "non-blood-related siblings" to a whole new level.

But Aono animated Yorigami using her blood. They are "blood-related" even if they're not the same species of inhuman horror.

Aono is annoying me more than any of the other characters at this point. "Paper Yorito" is most definitely an entity of his own - his love for the sky doesn't look to be something real Yorito ever had (in addition to the weird doll things). Yet, Aono loves "Paper Yorito" only in the sense that he is supposed to be a mirror of her lost brother, and definitely not for himself, someone who can think for himself and prove himself an individual, not just a copy. She ignores his wishes, his pleads, his feelings of despair and anguish, and insists on hanging onto an illusion while completely ignoring the fact that her "creation" is an individual of his own. Kind of reminds me why Asahina Suzuka had annoyed me so much, with her

Spoiler:

love for Akitsuki stemming almost solely from the fact that he resembles her late senpai, not actually for who he actually is

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I understand her frustrations and her feelings, but she really needs to be disillusioned. IMO it's not Matsuri who ruined everything; it's Aono who poisoned herself.

It was a very beautiful climax. The conversations and even the showdown were rich with drama, as if I was watching a telenovela.

With its intricate characters and pacing plot, sola has become one of the best drama shows of the spring season.

I know that the anime ended this week that has already passed, so I am preparing for when I download and watch the final episode.

Spoiler:

Yorito and Matsuri are trying to persuade Aono about the real truth.

Aono's pain and efforts were meaningless, since she could not walk on and leave behind the shadow of Yorito's memory. Therefore, she made the origami-Yorito in hopes that things would return and pretend as if nothing ever happened.
What I believe from witnessing the flashbacks is that Aono's insecurity and anxiety could had been washed away, if she ever have had the courage to actually speak to the real Yorito about her feelings.

Aono noticed that real-Yorito was ever close and friendlier to Matsuri, yet she never made a move to speak to him. It was not until Yorito died, that Aono this time took the initiative even if meant taking her own life.

Matsuri brought her back as a Yaka, because she did not want to be left alone after bonding with Yorito and Aono.
But as well Matsuri is not left without fault either. I think she was simply afraid of loneliness and to be forced to roam the world in loneliness again.

Of course, her choice of turning Aono into Yaka reaped a serious consequence, which became the paper Yorito that Aono made to mirror the real Yorito. But, this Yorito turned out to be nothing like the real one, as he developed his own personality and free will.

In summary, this was a fight for one to preserve things as how they currently are, for other to return everything back to how it should had become in the past, and for the last one to disappear from the anals of time as a memory that has to be erased.

~Ladies, if a guy ever tells you, he wants to cover you from head to toe in honey, and lick it all off inch by inch, that's the man who hasn't done it before. You start at her toes, and before you get to anything interesting, she is asleep and you are in diabetic coma ~